By Muhammad Luqman
Overseas Pakistani workers remitted US $ 17.87 billion in the first ten months of the fiscal year 2018-19 , showing a growth of 8.45 percent against US $ 16.48 billion in corresponding period in last year, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Friday.
During April 2019, the inflow of worker’s remittances amounted to US $1,778.90 million,which is 2% higher than March 2019 and 6% higher than April 2018. The countrywise details for the month of April 2019, according to the state bank, show that inflows from Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA,UK, GCC countries (including Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) and EU countries amountedto US $427.82 million, US $372.43 million, US $269.56 million, US $280.02 million, US $175.44million and US $48.19 million respectively compared with the inflow of US $399.56 million,US $362.40 million, US $250.91 million, US $245.85 million, US $167.68 million and US $54.75million respectively in April 2018.
Remittances received from Malaysia, Norway,Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries during April 2019 amounted toUS $205.43 million together as against US $197.72 million received in April 2018.
Pakistan, presently facing the twin monsters of current account deficit and trade deficit has to rely more on the remittances from the overseas Pakistani diaspora to shore up its foreign exchange reserves as the exports have been on decline over the last five years.
To overcome its current accounts deficit, the South Asian country has been able in getting over US $ 6 billion from the friendly countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE while talks for a US $ 6 billion bail out package are also underway with International Monetary Fund (IMF).
